Laurence Bonsack of North Highlands, CA is a 58-year-old
retired chemical engineer. Laurence plays CC because he finds it a
great way to experiment with different openings and an excellent way to
develop analytical abilities.GAME OF THE MONTH
Laurence out analyzes Jiri Kovats when White's
board-wide activities can't find a coordinating point.

ERRATA: Last month I mistakenly listed John Menke's
(considerable) achievements as including first or second places in the
1997-2001 Golden Knights. These wins were recorded by John Burton.
John Menke scored in the 2003 Golden Knights and the 2004 and 2005 Electronic
Knights.

CLASSIFIED ADS

LEARN CHESS BY MAIL !
Lessons given by mail, telephone, ICC - many different ways. I specialize
in players rated 800-2100 who would like to improve their game. Contact
me for information. Alex Dunne, 324 West Lockhart
St., Sayre, PA 18840 or chesskinetics@stny.rr.com

Palciauskas Tournament
Eugene Bedard
09P01 6-0TWITTER & TWEET CHESS
Using Twitter to play correspondence chess has become
common. Here is the first game I have seen on Twitter .

SICILIAN DEFENSE (B23)

But more than just a medium for
playing chess, twitter is conducting an interactive program called Chess
Tweets. Chess Tweets is an experiment to create an automated and objective
combination of mind and machine. The idea is to play a CC game with
participants of any strength sending in moves. Anyone may participate and Tweet
gives a weighted value to each participant's suggested move (more than just ELO
rating). Computer usage is discouraged. Interested twits (is that
the right word?) can contact chesstweets@gmail.com

POLL RESULTS
Although the response was small, it was quite clear what
postal players prefer if the post office decides to no longer deliver on
Saturdays. By a clear majority the preference is that the reflection time
should not be counted when the post office is closed, and that meant Saturdays,
Sundays, and Federal holidays. This will probably become the rule
when the post office cuts back, but is not yet official. RUSSIAN CC WINNER
The winner of the contest for the best Russian CC game
played between 2006-2009 was announced at http://chesspro.ru where
the following game and others may be found. The game notes say that this
game improved on Kasimdzhanov-Ivanchuk, Turin 2006. (19. hxg4) The end
position features a winning attack by White.

RUY LOPEZ (C92)

BEST GAMES PRIZE - USA STYLE
Due to the generosity of one of our correspondents who
prefers to remain anonymous, two beauty prizes have been established to be
awarded to the best Master game and the best non-Master game appearing in "The
Check Is in the Mail". These awards will be announced yearly, probably in
January. So, if you have a game you would like to see properly recognized,
send it in to me for possible publication and possible winning of the $100
prize offered in each category. I will be the sole judge of the
entries. For now, I am calling the prize the USA Beauty
Prize. Perhaps you can suggest a better name?POSTAL RATES TO GO UP ?
The US Post Office has applied for a rate increase effective
January 2, 2011, if approved. The cost of a first class letter would be
46 cents (up two cents) and a US post card stamp would also increase by two
cents to 30 cents. The postal increases reflect a steady drop in US mail volume
since 2007. If you disapprove of the postal increase, quick, send an
email to the Postmaster General -- oh, wait. That may be the root
cause of the post office projected 7 billion dollar loss for 2011.

Quote: My advice, which has always worked for
me is: never get involved in unfriendly or even rude arguments with your
opponents! If any discussion is getting unpleasant, then cut back the
discussion, or drop it completely. Usually it does not even get that far,
as one can tell early on which way the wind is blowing. == Kon Grivainis
Ken Koepplin shows off some powerful attacking Pawns.

RUY LOPEZ (C78)

CC Fact: The North American
Correspondence Chess League tournament of 1934 offered unusual prizes to its
finishing participants -- a prize of an individual chess piece from the men
used at the Pasadena tournament of 1932 -- the pieces used by Alekhine,
Reshevsky, Fine, Kashdan, and Reinfeld et al.
Two Bishops dominate two Knights
in this example from an Express
tournament.

QUEEN PAWN GAME (D07)

Steve Fairbairn writes of this game, "...it's not very
spectacular, an endgame grind, but it was an example of a perhaps unsung facet
of how correspondence chess can benefit those of us who play over the
board as well, developing endgame skills. I've had a couple of cases
where endings I've had in CC have come up in over the board games, and I'm so
much better equipped to deal with them".ENGLISH OPENING (A20)

When White mistakenly goes hunting two Pawns on the
queenside, he didn't foresee losing two pieces chasing them.

SICILIAN DEFENSE (B33)

Brian Wood's final words to his opponent: "Well done,
sir!" are a fitting caption to this match game.